I like the low gain side of the Broadcast as a clean boost to push an amp. The low-end cut is really useful.

I like it on guitar, but on bass the low gain is incredible. I picked up a two switch version at the end of December. I kinda wish I'd gotten the basic one-switch version. I don't much care for the high gain on bass.

The two outputs are in parallel, in phase with each other, for use with two amps or an amp and a DI, or tuner (remember, when the SHO was designed, many tuners only had one input and were not in the shape of a pedal).

I find more often than not I use my PDF-2 as a clean boost. You can set the eq bandwidth quite wide to get a nice fat boost, or zone in on mid frequencies to cut through. It has the gain stage which is lots of fun, but running it clean into a hot amp, or in conjunction with a low gain pedal (add some more Broadcast love!) is where it shines.

Since a couple people have mentioned ZVEX and SHOs, I thought I’d share mine: a ZVEX Double Rock. Two channels, either one can be a clean boost SHO or a Distortron. I use the SHO side for songs like REM The One I Love or Cake’s The Distance. I don’t know how “transparent” because its going into a Fender Mustang III digital modeling amp.

I still like and use my handpainted ZVex SuperDuper that has been with me for at least ten years. IMO it is not transparent as it adds hi end jangle and compression but that's the whole point. It sounds great with my Jazzmaster, Jaguar and Ric381/12.

I've used it with all kinds of amps but since I've started playing a 66 Bandmaster w/ Tremolux cab it is in front of my overdrive pedal (Bearfoot Silver Bee). The Silver Bee is always on with a low gain setting and I overdrive it with the SuperDuper.

Because I needed a solo boost that adds mainly volume, no additional treble but maybe some mids I recently added an Xotic EP booster after the Silver Bee and it works really great in that spot. While it has been on the market for a few years I've always really liked this pedal with Fender guitars through Fender amps, although it can be too compressed or muddy with other instruments or setups.

What if you think about it the other way around? The same way J Mascis approaches his sound. What if you kept your setup as-is for full-out sound and used something like the EHx Signal Pad to knock the output back?

it is really clean, has sufficient amount of boost on tap, it is very neutral and I love the skatewheel feature (allows adjusting the gain amount on the fly with your feet) . It also features TS mode - clean boost with tubescreamer vocing, very usueful for high gain amps.

however I am still faithful to my MXR Micro Amp reissue, because it acts almost as a fuzz when turned all the way up - it adds this weird colloration to bass and treble which I just love and it works very well in the mix with my band. I also love to stack a dimed fuzz face in front of it - sounds like end of the world.

With tube amps running out of headroom can be a problem. I’m a boost after overdrive person and I’ve found that boosts that can run on more than 9V either with an internal charge pump or otherwise helps with clarity.

If you have hot pickups and other stuff going at a certain point it’s not going to get any louder, and even the cleanest boost can just make things mushy. The attenuator idea is interesting. Not very applicable to my situation, but I can see that being useful after drives if you want level changes without muddying things up further.

I have used a Fulltone Fatboost FB-1 for many years. I love it, its the pedal I have on all the time.
It has tone control, volume and gain. Originally i bought it because I was playing an SG with P90s some of the time and a Fender Mustang. The Mustang was super quiet so I was really just using it to match the volume between those guitars. Eventually i just got really into using it to make my amps overdrive as opposed to playing with an overdrive.

I always have it on last in the chain, when i turn on a distortion pedal (currently a small sound big sound mini) into it it sounds really heavy.

In recent times I have been getting into turning down the amps volume lower than I would want, then boosting it back up with the fatboost. It makes my little Ampeg Reverb-rocket get sort of EL-84 sounding overdrive. I really digs it. I am sure other clean boosts would do something similar, but this one has worked for me for 15 years or so, its a classic aint broke don't fix it situation.

I used a Micro Amp for many years, then a few years ago I built myself a SHO clone that I thought added a bit of 'magic' to my sound apart from boosting the volume. I really like both those pedals, but for the last few years I've been relying on my Boss FZ-2. The boost mode is great, tons of volume available, and the dual band EQ makes it really versatile. I actually use it more in the boost mode than the fuzz modes.